


Trenchcoat Weather.

by greendays



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Cute, F/M, Ship, Shipping, Torchwood - Freeform, alien - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2010879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendays/pseuds/greendays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nova Wright didn't have much.<br/>No parents; they were dead.<br/>She had no friends, no boyfriend.<br/>She didn't even have a good relationship with her brother, who was the only person she lived with.<br/>All she had was her dead grandfather's military trenchcoat.<br/>Until she met Captain Jack Harkness.</p>
<p>//WARNING: SPOILERS, DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE COMPLETED SEASON 2.//</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. i.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was originally from my Fanfiction.net account, @inhabitants.  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> By the way, this is based at the end of Season 2, after Tosh and Owen's death, but before the "Children of Earth" season,

\- Nova Wright -  
"Jeremy, I'm goin' out for a walk, okay?" I called to my older brother, pulling my military trenchcoat off its hook on the front door. It used to belong to my grandfather, but after he died, he passed it down to my father, when my father died, to Jeremy. He never wore it, so he allowed me to keep it. I pulled it on over my black tee shirt, leaving the buckle behind my back. The coat was so large that it reached the heel of my converse, stopping just before it hit the ground.

"This late at night?" He called back to me from his bedroom upstairs.

"Yeah, why not? It's only eight thirty!"

"Fine, fine, but bring your pocket knife with you, just in case!"

"It's in my pocket, like always," I mumbled, opening the front door and letting it slam behind me. I didn't really have anywhere in particular to walk to, simply just walking around Cardiff. It was a lovely city, especially at night, and most particularly when it was raining, as it was now. I popped up my collar around my neck and ears, practically sinking into it, and pulled my blonde hair under it as well.

There were a few police cars that sped by me, hitting top speeds. I decided, of course, being the curious person that I was, that I ought to follow them. And I did, as best as I could in the beginning. I was able to follow them down a few streets and turns, but after a point, they'd gotten to far away for me to see. Someone who seemed to know what I was after waved at me and pointed down a street. I ran that way, and soon saw the cars jumbled up together, stopped just in front of a black van that had parked sideways. A black haired woman peered over the front of the van and called to the police officers, "You're dismissed, Torchwood has taken over this case."

I raised my eyebrow to myself. Torchwood? I'd never heard of that before.

The police stayed put, not backing down but also not pressing forth. I had to know what was going on. I passed by the police, sticking in the shadows, and walked into the nearest door, not bothering to shut it beside me. It was an old, empty warehouse, with plenty of windows lining the sides. I crept along it, passing the van. The woman stood beside a man in a suit and another man with a coat extremely similar to mine. They surrounded something, I'm not sure what, but I continuously caught glimpses of different shades of red.

Then the man in the suit stepped aside and I caught a clear sight of what looked like s red blowfish with a human body. I stared, eyes wide, with my hand over my mouth as the thing lifted its head. I could've sworn it stared straight at me and I, frozen with fear, couldn't bring myself to move. The man in the suit looked at me as well, and that's when I took off, running out of the door on the other end of the building.

There, I was stopped short by the man in the trenchcoat.

"Nice jacket," he smirked, pushing me back into the building by my shoulders. Though I was shaking in fear, I forced myself to return the smirk, my hands in my coat pockets.

"I could say the same to you." I answered, stepping back. He stepped towards me and I shot a glance at the window where I'd seen the odd creature. When I looked back at the man, he was leaning against the wall of the warehouse.

"What is that?" I asked, forcing myself to keep my voice calm as I pointed at the window.

He sighed. "I could tell you that it's a man in a mask, but something tells me that you're not one to believe that."

"Correct."

"Well, in that case, it's an alien."

"Well that's about as odd as hearin' that my brother managed to get pregnant," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "But I suppose it's possible. Hell if it's not a mask, it might as well be another lifeform."

He raised both eyebrows at me in what seemed like astonishment. "Hm. Most people would freak out or not believe it when we say aliens exist. But you don't seem bothered. Why is that?"

I blinked a few times whilst drawing a blank. I didn't know what to say for a while, but then it came to me. "People who freak out over hearing..that, are really just scared. The proof of alien existence begins to cancel out religion for some people, and without religion, they lose faith in a God. And nobody who's religious wants that. I on the other hand, don't believe in a God, or an afterlife, or anything of the sorts, so the only thing that scares me about it is whether or not it's going to kill me if I touch it. Asides from that, I think it's outright marvelous that such a thing could exist." He watched me with wide eyes as if he was absorbing what I was saying and harvesting; like it was a life changing speech, and I almost laughed at the thought.

"Captain Jack Harkness, at your service." He bowed, and I looked at him.

"Captain?" I asked. "Captain of what?"

"Of Cardiff's own Torchwood."


	2. ii

\- Nova Wright -

"Jack, you coming?" The woman with black hair called into the building. "We've got the blowfish detain-" She cut herself off as soon as she saw me, and clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm so sorry, you were probably explaining to her that this is a guy in a-"

"It's okay, Gwen. I was just introducing myself to Miss..?" Jack looked at me, expecting my name.

"Jane," I lied.

"Jane?" He asked me. "You don't look like a Jane.."

"Wow, thank you. Straight to the heart, Captain Jack." I faked hurt, rolling my eyes.

"Jack.." The woman, Gwen, interrupted, looking at him. "We need to get going and you need to..do your thing."

I looked between the both of them, my hand tightening around my pocketknife inside my coat.

"Gwen, I'll catch up with you and Ianto at the hub, okay?" Jack asked, looking at her. She nodded to him, and left the building.

"Hub?" I asked immediately, spinning to look at him. "What hub? And who's she?"

Jack looked at me, then around the building. "Let's go on outside. It's nicer out there than in here. Plus, it seems like the perfect trenchcoat weather."

I followed this 'Captain Jack Harkness' out into the light rain, letting it fall over me without a care. He did the same as well, and I couldn't help but smile. This stranger seemed quite like me in lots of odd ways.

"Listen to me, Jane-"

"It's Nova. Nova Wright." I said after holding up my hand to stop him. "I didn't want her to know my name."

"Okay, well, Nova, listen to me. I'm Captain Jack Harkness. The woman you saw was Gwen Cooper, another woman that works at Torchwood. The man you saw with me was Ianto Jones, yet again another coworker. That creature was an alien that came through a rift that runs along here in Cardiff." He said, staring me down. "Torchwood is an organization that prevents extraterrestrials from creating destruction here in our own world. Creatures from different planets cross over through the rift. Do you get it?"

I nodded, popping my collar up again. "Yeah, it's not difficult to understand."

"And now, I need to erase your memory of everything you've just heard, okay?" Jack gave an attempt at a small smile.

"Why? So I don't tell anyone? Because it's not like I even have anyone to tell. I live at home, with my brother, and no money, no friends. Half the times I haven't even gotten a bedroom, because my brother's 'girlfriend of the week' is fighting with him and wants to get away. I don't talk to people, and I don't like to." I said, sighing as I watched him bite his lip.

"Nova, I-"

"You know what? Never mind. Go for it. Clear my memory or whatever. No big deal I guess. I believed in aliens before I talked to you, anyway." I shrugged, then added, "but, answer this, what was the point in telling me all of that, just to have it erased?"

Jack bit his lip and tapped his right foot all at once, like he was anxious and nervous. My hand went back into my pocket to wrap around my knife, just in case.

"Because sometimes, you just need to tell someone those kinds of things. And I didn't want to lie." He answered, his blue eyes staring into my own. I paused and looked down at the ground underneath us and said, "please don't take it away. It's a fascinating knowledge and the fact that I've just seen a real, live alien isn't something I want to forget. I don't have much of anythin' in general, other than memories and knowledge, and this is something I want to keep."

"Knowing this stuff will put you in danger-"

"Does it look like I really care about danger?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He let out a soft laugh, then shook his head. He was about to say something when a loud snarling/growling/screeching noise came from behind him.

Three creatures, about 5'6-6' tall were walking down the alleyway towards us, faces disgusting and mangled looking, wish teeth the size of sharks' and claws long. They came closer, craning their necks in every way possible as if to see us at different angles. Jack used his arm to push me behind him and used his other to draw a gun from his waistband. I pulled my pocketknife out of my pocket, flicking the blade up. "Aliens, I take it?" I asked him, my free hand wrapping tightly around the elbow of the arm that was holding me behind him. He nodded quickly, looking around for a way to get out.

"Warehouse door," I whispered, pointing ahead at the door that we'd come out of. The creatures were just feet away from the door, and we'd have to get closer to them to get inside.

Jack nodded, and it was his turn to grab my arm, pulling me towards the door. The creatures growled louder and louder until one lunged at us, specifically as Jack. I threw my knife, letting it lodge itself into the shoulder of the creature. It howled with pain and staggered back, and Jack ran into the warehouse, shutting the door behind him after pulling me inside. He grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me up and down, saying, "It didn't hit you, did it? You're alright?" I nodded quickly and returned the question.

"Always." He said with a nod.

"What were those?" I asked, my heartbeat loud in my ears.

"Weevils. They live in the sewers. And might I say, good shot on the knife. It's difficult to aim those so that they actually hurt your opponent." He said, grinning at me.

"I would've gone for the kill and all but those things..I couldn't just kill it." I shrugged.

"Well, you chose right. And hey, do you have any skill with guns?"

"I had to sell my father's after he died, but I'd already had quite a bit of training with them, yes, why?"

"How would you, Nova Wright, like a chance for a job at Torchwood?"


	3. iii.

\- Nova Wright -

"Me? Join Torchwood? Why would you want me in Torchwood? I have no talents that could contribute." I said in disbelief, raising an eyebrow at him.

He looked back at me, his grin unfaltering. "Your weapons knowledge. That's what you can contribute. You knew where to hit it to injure it, but not kill, and that's just what we need. If you even attempt to join, I won't have to erase your memory. Plus, you said it yourself. You find it fascinating. So why give up the opportunity to see others?"

"Okay, I'm in. But I get a week to decide whether or not I want to stay, okay?" I asked.

"Okay."

"Hello, Jan-"

"It's Nova." I said, while standing beside Jack in the entrance to Torchwood, hands in my coat pockets whilst talking to Gwen. "I didn't want to tell you my name right away. I'm sorry." She just nodded as if she understood, and then glanced at Jack.

"I see you've found your twin, eh Jack? Dresses like you, and acts like you." Gwen smiled at me, letting me know that it wasn't an insult.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jack smirked back at her, then looked at me. "This is Torchwood. We prevent extraterre-"

"Yes, I know. You already told me. You prevent them from causing destruction here." I cut him off and he just grinned.

Ianto peered over the railing of the stairs that led to the next floor, looking at me, calling, "Jack.. Who's she and is she joining Torchwood?" His voice seemed more worried than anything else.

"Yeah, Jack, is she joinin' us?" Gwen asked.

"Possibly," I answered for Jack. "I get a week to decide if I want to stay or go."

Ianto then practically disappeared back upstairs, out of sight, and Gwen smiled at me before turning back to her desk and computers.

"Tough crowd," I mumbled under my breath, and Jack laughed just as my phone started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at it.

Jeremy.

"Oh, hey Jeremy," I said once I answered.

"Nova. Where are you? It's almost ten at night!" He exclaimed, sounding out of breath. Then I heard a female voice behind him and I knew why he sounded like that.

"I'm out." I answered through gritted teeth.

"When will you be home?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'll let you go back to fucking the first girl you saw on the street today, bye." I said and hung up. When I looked up at him, I noticed Jack was looking at me with sympathetic eyes.

He asked, "Are you okay?"

I just nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"It's not a big deal. It happens all the time. I'm used to it. Now, what am I supposed to be doing?" I asked, averting the subject. Although he noticed, Jack let it slide.

"I'll bring you down to the weapons room. There's a bunch of targets set up there that you can practice on." He offered me his hand, but I didn't take it. He frowned, but then turned and started leading me down a few hallways.

"Where'd you get the coat?" Jack asked, trying to make small talk while we walked.

"Jeremy. My dad gave it to him, and my grandfather gave it to my dad. My grandfather fought in World War Two. Where'd you get yours?" I inquired.

"Long story." He answered, and I nodded, not wanting to pry any further.

After a while of walking, we were finally in a room with a table set up, covered in various types of weapons. Scattered around in tons of different places were targets with pictures of what looked like different kinds of aliens on them. Jack tossed me a pair of noise-cancelling headphones and grinned at me, putting his own pair on. I noticed there was a microphone on the bottom of each one, more than likely for two people to be able to communicate even while shooting.

I grinned back at him and putting my pair on, then looked at the table.

"Pick one and just try it out." Jack said through the microphone. I noticed the few knives laying in a row and picked one up, looking at the first target ahead of me. I bent my wrist and let the knife fly, hitting the target in what looked to be a forehead. The knife stuck there, lodged a couple inches into it. I looked at Jack with a smile and he simply stared at me, then motioned to a gun. I picked it up and turned my body towards the next target, using one hand to shoot at it. I hit it where a human's heart would be, and Jack just continued to stare at me, pointing at each gun one by one until there was nothing left for me to try. At one point I yawned and looked at my phone to see I had three missed calls, all from Jeremy.

"Hold on," I said to Jack and pulled the headphones off, dialing up Jeremy again.

"What do you want?" I snapped as the other end picked up.

"Hey, Nova, I know I'm probably the last person that you want to talk to right now, but I need to talk to you," the female from earlier answered.

"What?" I hissed angrily. This was probably about another fight. The girls tended to call me when Jeremy acted like an ass.

"Jeremy keeps saying it's hard to breath. Does he have asthma?" She said urgently, over the sound of coughing and scrambling. My heartbeat was in my ears again, loud and violent.

"Not that I know of. Call a bloody ambulance!" I exclaimed. That caught Jack's attention right away.

"Okay, okay. He keeps saying he's fine, but then he mumbles something that I can't understand."

"Just call an ambulance!" I practically screamed in frustration, then jammed my phone into my coat pocket and looked at Jack.

"I'll give you a ride, what's the address?" He asked.

"Jeremy?" I asked, once we were standing beside him in the hospital. There was no response.

"Dear, he's unconscious." The nurse said.

"No fucking shit," I hissed at her, then looked at my brother. It hardly looked like him, skin red and soaked in sweat, half his hair gone and his body in an odd position that no one could move him from.

One of the nurses was trying to hold Jack out of the room because he wasn't family and, after a little while of him trying to negotiate with her to get inside, he eventually shouted, "Torchwood, move aside." She let him pass and as soon as she did, he came over and sat in the empty chair beside me.

"Has there been any other cases like this?" He questioned the nurse.

She hesitated before answering, "yes, three, but.." and then she came closer and began to whisper something in his ear. I'd been staring off into the distance, but I was hearing everything and I cut her off loudly, "yes, three, but they all died, didn't they?"

"I'm afraid so, yes." She said solemnly.

"Piss off," I growled. "Weren't you ever told not to withhold critical information?"

"Nova-"

"Jack, don't even start with me. My brother's about to die and the last thing he'll remember from me was me yelling at him, I don't have time for this shit, do you understand me?"

"I wasn't going to tell you anything other than that I'm sorry," he said softly.

I shook my head. "No, you aren't. You didn't know him. You pity me. It's not sympathetic, and I do not want it."

Jack sighed, and then turned back to the nurse, who looked like she had tears in her eyes. "Do you know what's wrong with him?" He asked.

"No," she said, "the three cases that have come up were the first anyone's ever seen of this. We don't know how to treat it other than to leave them on respirators."

"How close together have these cases been?" He asked.

"All in the last two weeks."

"Okay, thank you. Please leave the room, I need to have a word with Nova alone. And shut the door behind you," he said to her. When she did so, he turned to me and quickly said, "an alien parasite has infected your brother. I'm not sure what kind, and I'm not sure how to get rid of it, but I know what's happened. It's in your brother's lungs right now."


	4. iv.

\- Nova Wright -

"An alien. In my brother's lungs. That's lovely," I muttered, staring at my brothers wilting body. "What's even lovelier is the fact that you don't know how to fix it. Just perfect."

"I don't know how to extract it without ripping open his lung." Jack said quietly. I spaced out for a minute, then widened my eyes and jumped up.

"Jack, is there a way to determine which lung it's in?" I asked. He nodded quickly and I grinned. "Okay, well you need to figure that out then. I on the other hand, am going to pull it out through his esophagus."

"Nova I-"

"It's the perfect plan!"

"Nov-"

"It can't fail, Jeremy will live!"

"Nova! I already thought of that, but the parasite's more than likely awfully too big to pull out, especially if it's killing him by filling his lung. We can't just pull it out."

\- Captain Jack Harkness -

The grin that had been placed on Nova's face quickly fell and her eyes welled with tears when I told her. I was pretty sure she knew from the start that her plan wouldn't work, I could see it in the way her hands shook.

"Nova.." I said softly, standing as well. She wrapped her coat tighter around herself, as if she could hide herself away inside it. Earlier she'd said I pitied her, and I assumed she was right, although it was Jeremy I pitied, and not her. I did sympathize with her; I'd been through the same thing multiple times. I took a step closer, but she shook her head as to ward me off as she popped her collar up and sunk into it, away from me. I advanced further, even as far as putting my hand on her shoulder. As soon as I did, she came forward and wrapped her arms around my torso, her head against my chest as she burst into sobs. I, although startled, hugged her back as tightly as I could without hurting her and took a deep breath to stop my own tears. I'd known her for a day, and already, it hurt to see her upset.

"Shh," I whispered, trying my best to get her to stop. "It's all going to be okay. I promise." She shook her head and just stood there, sobbing and not moving another inch.

Nova had fallen asleep on my shoulder by the time I saw it. The creature. It was taking over his body; I could see a tentacle of some sort starting to protrude from the left side of Jeremy's body. It was growing into him. The nurses weren't to come in there, which I was grateful for, but I wasn't quite sure what to do. Instinct told me to kill it, but Nova's quiet breathing told me otherwise. She still had tears on her face, tears that had smeared her mascara down her cheeks and made her look exhausted and horrendously sad. I barely flicked my tongue over my thumb and worked to gently wipe away the ruined makeup without waking her. It was 1:36a.m. and she'd only just fallen asleep after crying her heart out. Both of her hands were wrapped around my other wrist, her head leaning against the place where my shoulder and torso met, since I was turned towards her.

I stopped after I realized I couldn't get much of the makeup off without waking her, and then looked up at Jeremy's body. It was only a matter of time until he was no longer Jeremy.

I used my free arm to pull my phone from my pocket and dialed up Gwen. I knew she'd be at him, asleep more than likely, but I needed her to answer. Either her or Ianto, and I knew she'd be quicker to get here. The way she looked at Nova was like Nova was just a child, that she shouldn't be out here. I knew better. She had to be older than twenty, and if she didn't come to Torchwood, then she'd go nowhere. Talking to her had shown me that she really didn't have many hopes for her future or what she might do come time for her to get a job.

As I was waiting for Gwen to pick up the phone, I started to think about what Nova had told me. Her parents were dead, she had no friends or a boyfriend, she had no job, and didn't have much talent that could help her find one. Jeremy had been the only thing keeping her alive. Without him, she had no food, no family, and no house. It's not like I could just let her go live out in the streets on her own, but I didn't know what to do with her-

"What do you want, Jack?" Gwen whispered, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Oh, hi Gwen. Listen, can you come out to the hospital? I think we have the start of a new case." I whispered my answer as well, not wanting to wake Nova.

"What is it?" She whispered, but I could already hear her scrambling and rustling around to get out of bed.

"Four people have been infected with Parasites, in their lungs. All the infected have died, and in the last week. The most recent infected was.." I paused. "Nova's brother, Jeremy. But for some reason I have a feeling that this one is much different than the others."

"Nova's brother? Is she with you? Oh, that poor girl.."

"Yeah, she's with me. She's sleeping, so keep quiet when you come it. It seems like she hasn't slept a night in weeks. Plus, she only just stopped crying." I felt Nova's hands tighten slightly, then relax. "Just hurry Gwen, I can't figure out what to do."

"I got here as quickly as I could, and I asked one of the nurses how long the other cases had before dying. She said Jeremy's exceeded that amount of time. This is different than the cases, that's for sure, Jack." Gwen said as she stood over Jeremy, watching as a now second tentacle emerged from his skin, writhing around. Nova had practically wrapped herself around my arm, her right arm wrapped around my elbow, her left around my lower arm. She had shifted so that her legs were in the chair with her. Gwen had commented as soon as she walked in that it was adorable, and I found myself beginning to agree.

"Jack, it's taking over his body. We can't let it keep thriving off of his body. We need to kill it. Now, before it gets any bigger." She said. I looked at her, then at Jeremy's body, and then at Nova herself.

"Do it then. Quickly. Unplug the respirator. We'll extract the Parasite after he's dead and we've brought him back to Torchwood." I said, wiggling my arm out from underneath her grasp. She stirred for a while, and was on the verge of waking up. It wasn't until the loud, continuous blaring of the heart monitor sounded that she woke up. I gripped her shoulders, forcing her to face me so she didn't watch her brother die.

"What's going on?" She asked urgently, struggling to turn around to see. I cupped my hands on her cheeks and contained her head to stare at me.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to her, leaning my forehead against her own. Her eyes welled up and she ripped herself away from me, looking at her brother. The Parasite thrashed as hard as it could, ripping apart Jeremy's torso.

Nova bit down on the back of her hand, then turned and ran out the door, not stopping for anything. A nurse ran inside, put I stopped her, pushing her back by her shoulders. "Torchwood business," I said, watching as Gwen detached the body from all machines and IVs, and picked it up over her shoulder. I looked at her and said, "I'll meet you back at the hub, go ahead and take the car. The keys are in the front seat. I need to find Nova!"

I took off down the hallway, running as fast as I could. She'd probably taken an elevator, and we were on the forth floor, so I went ahead and ran down the stairs, taking them three, even four at a time.

"Nova!" I shouted into the lobby once I'd reached it, turning around in circles to look for her.

I saw the tail of her trenchcoat disappear out the front entrance, and I was after her as quickly as possible.

"Nova! Nova please!" I shouted, chasing her down the sidewalk. "Nova, stop!"

I couldn't catch up with her until she'd tripped over the curb and fallen on her knees in the crosswalk. I grabbed her by her arms and pulled her back to the sidewalk, kneeling down in front of her.

"Are you okay?" I asked. She just stared at me and burst right into tears.

"He was all I had! He was all that was left, I have nothing, I have no one, and I can't do anything about it!I'm going to lose the house, I'm going to lose all the utilities, and the food. I'm going to starve on the streets, and now I don't even have my brother! I promised my dad that I'd keep him safe.. Oh, God Jack, he's dead," she sobbed, staring up at me. Her eyes were a vibrant, glowing blue, now rimmed red from how much she'd cried.

"I'll keep you safe, okay? You have someone," I whispered. "You have me. You have a place at Torchwood, and I can find you somewhere to sleep. I'm not going to let you fall through the cracks. I promise."

"But Jack, I don't want to cause any-"

"That's my final decision. Now, get up, and pop up your collar, because it's trenchcoat weather."


End file.
